Union Level, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Union Level, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Union Level lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Union Level — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Union Level — the short answer
Union Level, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7b is Union Level's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Union Level's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Union Level
Each reading below is measured for Union Level itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredUnion Level runs about 236 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredUnion Level sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Union Level is in
Union Level sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Union Level's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mecklenburg County.
What Grows in Union Level
Every plant below cleared Union Level's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Union Level?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Union Level
Survey cells within 31 miles of Union Level checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 32 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Union Level
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Union Level. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- G&G FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- RIGHT OF WAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WELLS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ABANDONED MICROWAVE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BUCKHORN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- RAY GORDON JR - CONTRACTORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- U. S. #1 GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- JOHNNIE STIGALL FRMR COUNTRY STORE/ROWUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- PARK VIEW MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- PARK VIEW SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- BUGGS ISLAND QUARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- J&J GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Union Level's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Union Level.
Total Sites
189
within ~10 miles of Union Level
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Union Level
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Union Level
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Union Level, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 164 sites within ~10 miles of Union Level. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Union Level
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Union Level average
Your land is one point inside Union Level
Everything above resolves to Union Level as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Union Level Average
Union Level Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Union Level
- ●One soil character for all of Union Level
- ●Frost dates read at Union Level's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Union Level's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Union Level
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Union Level, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Union Level averages can't show:
We read public map data around Union Level — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Union Level average
How we know this about Union Level
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Union Level’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Union Level
When does frost risk typically end in Union Level?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Union Level typically lands around Mar 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 13.
When is the first frost in Union Level?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Union Level typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Union Level?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Union Level sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 31, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Union Level?
The federal record around Union Level is a meaningful one — 189 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (164), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Union Level?
From about Oct 15 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Union Level's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Union Level's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Union Level’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Union Level's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,364 acres it covers and 189 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Union Level's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Union Level's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 14 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 189 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Union Level, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Union Level's boundary and the 2,364 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Union Level's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Union Level checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Union Level's 2,364 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mecklenburg County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mecklenburg County
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Mecklenburg County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Union Level's 2,364 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Union Level you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,364 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Union Level-wide figureread your own land →
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